Throwback Thursday – Skating with #4

I didn’t love hockey when I was a kid so much as I loved Bobby Orr. 

I have no idea why I settled on Orr, who played with the Boston Bruins. Maybe he did something special when my Dad took me to see the Toronto Maple Leafs play the Bruins in Toronto. Dad was actually planning to take my brother, but Kevin had the flu so the second-string kid got to go.

It was Orr whose career I followed and loved to watch. I didn’t even know the history books would one day call him arguably the greatest defenceman to play the game. He was just my player.

In the early 1990s I was hosting the evening show at MIX 999 Toronto (now Virgin radio). When you’re on air in a big market – heck, even in a smaller one – you’re asked to attend lots of events to give them publicity. Sometimes it’s a no brainer, as in, would you like to skate at Maple Leaf Gardens with Bobby Orr? I had no idea that I would actually get to skate WITH Bobby Orr, all in support of children’s charities.

I arrived a bit late and people were already on the ice so I laced up as quickly as I could after introducing myself to the organizer and putting on my event pullover. There were little kids and other media people and there, circling the rink with total ease and a big smile, was Number 4.

I’m not the greatest skater. How could I be when I hardly ever do it anymore? So I wobbled around close to the boards until I got my sea legs. Orr and the rest of the skaters lapped me several times and finally, I began to hold my own. Just as I lost my nervousness and felt I was steady, Bobby skated up beside me and asked with a grin if I’d like to go a bit faster.

Are you kidding me?

I introduced myself and he said, “Let’s go!”. He took my hand in his and we started to skate together. Well, he skated and I went along for the ride. His hand was huge, like a dinner plate, and I felt like a little kid in his presence. I remember a surge of pure joy as I wondered if we would just go around once, or if I could make this incredible moment last. I’m sure I babbled at him the whole time. That’s what I do when I get nervous. We made two laps of the rink and then he said so long and skated away to make someone else’s acquaintance. That’s what he was there for. To give people a great experience as he represented a charitable cause.

Later in the lobby, I was exhausted and sweating from my lame attempts to round the rink without falling on my butt, which I did a few times anyway. And there was Bobby Orr, smiling his genuine smile and posing for photos. The photographer dutifully took down the names and addresses of everyone he snapped, promising to send them soon. True to his word, my picture with Bobby arrived in the mail at the MIX a week or so later. I remember when he saw me he held out his arm and waved his fingers in the universal signal for, ‘come over here’. He wrapped that giant hand on my shoulder and once again, the little kid in me who watched him skate around the TV screen for so many Saturday nights, nearly exploded with happiness.